


Regret

by Goldenheartedrose



Series: Tumblr ficlets [4]
Category: Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-25
Updated: 2012-03-25
Packaged: 2017-11-02 12:05:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/368801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goldenheartedrose/pseuds/Goldenheartedrose





	Regret

Charlie Swan didn’t often like to think about it, but he had many regrets. There were many choices in his life that he wished he had chosen differently. But oh, boy, who could have foretold this? He chuckled to himself. Well, Alice could have, his mind interjected.

Ever since Bella had returned home, as he liked to think about it, he had felt protective of her. Of course he would - she was his daughter. It was true that he had been largely absent for the past 16 years of her life, and for that he felt immense guilt. Renee had taken Bella away from him as an infant. He had briefly considered going after them, but what did he know about raising a daughter? No, he had thought. It was better for Bella to be with her mother. 

But when she had returned home to him, after Renee’s marriage to Phil, the baseball player, Charlie thought sardonically, well, Charlie felt like his life was complete. He felt like a big part of him had been missing, and now it just wasn’t anymore. 

It had begun innocently enough. Bella had made a few friends, something that Charlie was glad for. He had been concerned with her obvious lack of social skills that it was going to be tough for her to move to a new town. Soon the new friends turned to new friends and a boyfriend. And that boyfriend was Edward Cullen. Though Charlie was initially wary of Edward, as he would have been with any boy that Bella had found herself attracted to, he soon realized that Edward came from a good family, and from what he could tell, treated Bella well.

It had all gone by far too quickly.

She had broken his trust time and time again. She had broken bones, run off for days, even been left for dead and lost in the middle of the woods. And for what? The affection of some boy? He wanted to end it. He wanted to end him. But he knew, as all good fathers do, that if he pushed too hard, she would be lost forever.

So he had stood by, questioning her choices all the way, but never telling her “no”, exactly. She was a grown woman at 18 years of age. She could make her own choices.   
So she married him.

And now they had a baby, whom Edward called their “ward”. What an antiquated word, Charlie had thought. And he wasn’t stupid. He could clearly see Renee and Bella in the child’s face. 

Charlie grunted at the memory. He could have lived with all of that. He could have been okay with her early marriage, with them becoming parents at just 17 and 18 years of age. That he could live with.  
Bella, though, was changed. She had become a shell of her former self. Oh, yes, she was more beautiful, of course. She began to resemble Rosalie and Alice far more than she resembled Renee. But her voice was cold. Her skin — Charlie shuddered at the memory. Her skin was ice cold, and hard, like a statue.

His Bella had disappeared in front of his eyes, to be replaced by a ghost. 

So many regrets…


End file.
